Connor and Ben Swift kept it in the family once again as they filled two spots on the podium at the Graen Cymru – part of the UCI Gravel World Series and a qualifier for the upcoming Gravel World Championships in Belgium.
Victory went to Connor Swift, sporting the gravel national champion’s tricolore jersey he won in Galloway earlier this month, and saw him cross the line just ahead of his second-placed cousin and Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Ben. Third place went to Ben Thomas (Ben Thomas Coaching), 4:20 behind.
With Connor Swift a bronze medallist at last year’s Gravel World Championship behind winner Matej Mohorič and Florian Vermeersch, the ground looks set for him to take aim at another high placing in the event.
“Solid whackin before gravel world champs coming up in a couple of weeks time,” he wrote on Instagram.
Ineos Grenadiers, which has come in for criticism this year for not living up to past achievements, is fast looking like an off-road-first team with Swift’s victory the fourth win for an Ineos Grenadiers rider on the rough stuff since its last win on the road, in early July at the Tour of Austria.
The other three off-road wins were taken by Swift at the British National Championship on August 31, and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Tom Pidcock, who both won gold at the Olympic Games XC mountain bike.
The women’s Graean Cymru race was won by another WorldTour rider, former national road champion and Hour record holder Joscelin Lowden of the Uno-X Mobility team. Her solo victory saw her finish 1:14 ahead of Amelia Mitchell, with Lizi Brooke (Pro Noctis-200° Coffee- Hargreaves Contracting) a further 10 seconds back.
The 113km race started and finished at Llyn Brenig in North Wales, with the course venturing into thick forest, returning to a 1km long finishing straight alongside the reservoir for what the event calls “one of the most picturesque finishes in the World Series”.
The Gravel World Championship will be held between Halle and Leuven in Belgium, on Saturday October 5 and Sunday October 6.
Starting in Halle, the men will ride a 181km course, and the women 134km, with both riding a torturous lap (two laps for the men) that jinks around south of the finishing city of Leuven, heading into the Meerdaal forest before returning to the city centre to tackle a 1.8km cobbled climb to the finish.
